Michigan Basketball: Must beat Minnesota

In my opinion, Michigan’s chances to make the Big Dance this year has come down to the Minnesota game.

Michigan still controls their own destiny. If they beat Minnesota, then win their first game of the BIg Ten Tournament, which could possibly be Iowa or Northwestern to move into the second round, I think that would be enough to squeak in. But we’ll have to wait and see.

This team can play with anybody in the Big Ten, and most teams in the country when they come to play as they did against Duke, UCLA, Purdue, Illinois, but the problem is, that the “giant killer” Michigan team doesn’t always show up. Sometimes this team just seems out of it, especially on the road.

The other day, I posted Big Ten games are of interest for Michigan. Here are those results so far.

2/28 Indiana 58 at Penn State 61 … BOO Indiana.
2/28 Ohio State 50 at Purdue 75 … YEA Purdue.
3/1 Michigan 55 at Wisconsin 60 … BOO.
3/3 Ohio State at Iowa … Go Iowa.
3/4 Wisconsin at Minnesota … Go Wisconsin.
3/5 Illinois at Penn State … Go Illinois.
3/7 Michigan at Minnesota … Go Blue.
3/7 Penn State at Iowa … Go Iowa.
3/8 Northwestern at Ohio State … Go Northwestern.
3/8 Indiana at Wisconsin … Go Indiana.

As for the Wisconsin game, Michigan played well at times, but once again, like on other road games, they seem unable to get things started right away. It took about five minutes for the team to realize a basketball game was going on.

In the beginning of the second half, Wisconsin raised their game and really brought the effort and defense and it seemed like Michigan was lost for about ten minutes.

Some fans want to talk about the refs and what they call or don’t call, but frankly, I like when the refs let the teams play with a little beating and banging of the bodies. I do not like the touch fouls and the tick-tack fouls that seem to get called in some games. The teams need to adjust on how the refs are calling the game and deal with it.

Michigan played well at times against Wisconsin and losing to them by five points on their court is nothing to be ashamed of, but the problem is they let other games slip through their fingers. Such as the Iowa, when they were up four points with one minute to go and lost in overtime. That game might be the game that could end up keeping them out of the Big Dance.

The one thing in Michigan’s favor regarding playing Minnesota is they get to rest up and get ready not only for that game, but also the Big Ten Tournament. Minnesota has to play Wisconsin on Wednesday night then face Michigan on Saturday, so Michigan should be well rested.

When they were showing the tournament breakdown on television, I was hoping that Michigan would get into that 6th or 7th place ranking where they would play Indiana or Iowa and if they win they would play Illinois or Purdue. I believe they can play with Illinois and Purdue a lot better than a team like Michigan State right now.

Let’s all hope for a good outcome next Saturday when Michigan goes to Minnesota. It’s going to be the most important game of the year.

Go Blue.

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Written by ErocWolverine

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